Promo still from Interkosmos site Cinematexas Viking Funeral WeekendSaturday, December 1st-Sunday, December 2nd501 Studios Theater (501 N. IH 35)FREE; check schedule for showtimes[info]After an 11-year stint of avante-garde programming and generally being "the most pioneering film festival in the country", the Cinematexas Film Festival is no more. Sure, we have a wealth of film festivals to keep us entertained here Austin, but we're feeling a bit wistful about Cinematexas and their talent for bringing us......

At the regal Riverbend Centre on Saturday night, Joanna Newsom proved why she’s one of today’s most iconoclastic and oddly appealing musicians: not only did she mesh shockingly well with the ultra-classy Austin Symphony Orchestra, but she also managed to get in trouble for hauling a bottle of Maker’s Mark onto stage. And it’s in this almost-accidental appeal to both sides of the concert-going spectrum—as well as an almost embarrassing wealth of talent—that she......

Austinist recently had the opportunity to talk with Zell Miller III about his upcoming show Hip Hop Theater Explosion!. Miller was this year's winner of the Mark David Cohen New Play Award for his work My Child, My Child, My Alien Child. He received critical acclaim for last year's B-Boy Bluez, and packed houses the previous year for his phenomenal Evidence of Silence Broken. Now he's showcasing Austin's best and brightest hip-hop talent in what......

In a lot of ways, Trinidad, Colorado isn't so different from other small towns. They've got a population of 9,000, the local economy is transitioning away from once-prosperous mining and ranching, and Christ is Lord. But Trinidad, like many of its visitors, has a little something extra: Over the past forty years, six thousand people have traveled there to undergo sex-change operations. Dr. Stanley Biber secretly began performing genital-reassignment surgery, or GRS, in 1969, hiding......

The little pocket of tex-mex restaurants on Manor just east of I-35 never ceases to delight and impress, and El Gringo is no exception. Sunday's brunch outing was fruitful and exciting for the future of this establishment. Brunch was an addition to the full menu, meaning we had a wealth of options if one of us wasn't up for traditional morning fare. We began with gorgeous chorizo empanadas with a perfect crust - substantial......

The AFS retrospective of Michael Haneke's films concludes tonight with Caché (Hidden), a film which was lauded by critics yet went largely unseen during a national release just over a year ago. Haneke's insistence on audience discomfort probably has a lot to do with this, as he calls into question everything from Western abuse of wealth (by the French) to the inherent goodness of children. The film begins with a videotape of a Parisian......

Alpha Dog Dir: Nick Cassavettes There's an interesting moment early on in Alpha Dog that sets up the gist of the movie. At a house party in an affluent LA neighborhood, teenagers are getting loaded and generally misbehaving. One, eyes heavily lidded by pot smoke, points at a rap video playing on a plasma TV and proclaims derisively, “Man, they only thing they be shooting is music videos!” Apparently these upper-class Valley kids know a......

The holidays are over, there's an all you can eat grackle buffet downtown, and it's January 9, the first proper release week of 2007. How fitting: the damned Canadians are dominating it. Neko Case Live From Austin, TX (New West Records) Though Case's recording from Austin City Limits is four years old (recorded originally in 2003), it stands as a testament to the unequivocal talent those not in the audience that night were privy......

THURSDAY [29] [music] Loxsly at Whisky Bar (link) [books] Barbara Robles presents The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide at BookPeople (7pm) (link) [music] Everyone Knows Everyone Volume 3 with Those Peabodys, Visitors, Mars Wars Feat. Pure Filth, Young Love, Rory + The Artificial HeartS, Pirates Of Darkwater, DJ Shane and visual art a bunch of folks (including Austinist's own Justin "Juice" Cox and Jackie Young) at Emo's (link) [film]......

Mike Shea at BookPeople (7pm) (link) [music] Awesome Cool Dudes, Daniel Francis Doyle, Zom Zoms, Ralph White at Emo's (link) [music] Tristan Prettyman, Michael Tolcher at The Parish Room (link) [music] Pete Yorn instore at Waterloo Records (6:30pm) (link) [music] An Irish Sing-a-long with Brobdingnagian Bards and Campbell Wilson at Cactus Cafe (Free, 8pm) (link) [film] AFS 20th Anniversary Screening: Godard's Weekend at Alamo Downtown (7pm) (link) [film] Rolling Roadshow: The Goonies at Central Market......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors So, I’m not sure how “in the know” you might be concerning the movements of global wealth by way of rampant American consumption of crap, but gas is stupid expensive. I describe it as “stupid” because these days, I’m standing at a pump that’s pushing out the goods at over $2.50 a......

With the understanding that the University of Texas is a public facility, and funded by the people of Texas, the president (of UT, not Dubya) has continued the tradition of having a yearly open house. Explore UT is an annual event that allows people to explore and get to know all of the exciting things that the university has to offer. From solar cars to mariachi music, from video games to Shakespeare, the open......

Bob Hudgins is back home and he could not be happier. The native Texan (born in Witchita Falls) left his position as deputy director of the Illinois Film Office and headed back to the Lone Star State to take over as the head of the Texas Film Commission after his friend Tom Copeland retired from the post. Copeland, who left the Commission about six months ago, holds Hudgins in high regard and lobbied for......

Austin's burgeoning reputation as a major film hub is largely bolstered by massive blockbuster directors like Richard Linklater and Robert Rodriguez, but at the other end of the spectrum are a plethora of local filmmakers with a wealth of unexhibited talent. To showcase the latter works - which are often entertaining and sometimes briliant - is a local film collective called Screen Door. They exist largely to "showcase the talents of local and national......

You know you want to take your dog to one of Austin's many leashless dog parks. Or maybe you just want to be able to leave the house for an hour without coming home to find all of your shoes, socks and area rugs in a tattered pile on the floor. We can help you with that! From the wealth of dog training options available in Austin, we chose Kim Roche. Kim helped us turn......